4-Way Pennant Tie

[tayloraj]

For the first time in my very long OOTP playing career, I've seen a pennant race end in the four-way tie.St. Louis, Detroit, Washington and Boston all ended the season deadlocked at 87-67, with my Red Sox blowing a 6-1 ninth inning lead over the seventh place White Sox to fritter away their chance at winning the pennant outright.

The game handled the situation ok; a two-tiered playoff of Boston vs. Washington and Detroit vs. St. Louis in one-game playoffs, with the winners advancing to face each other for the pennant.

I'm thrilled with the excitement of this year's game; thanks for putting out another great edition!

[swoboda]

Wow, fantastic outcome. I guess every regular season game can be more meaningful than you thought.

[tayloraj]

Originally Posted by swoboda

Wow, fantastic outcome. I guess every regular season game can be more meaningful than you thought.

It makes me agonize over every decision I made vis a vis my rotation all year; since 1943 was a war year and there are a ton of doubleheaders on the schedule, I moved my #5 starter to being my relief ace to get him more work, with one of my worst pitchers penciled in to the #5 slot instead. That guy got two starts down the stretch, lost one of them, and I'm haunted by the idea that that might have made the difference.

Bottom line: I really love this year's game.

[fuzzy_patters]

Did you play the games out?

[thehef]

Originally Posted by tayloraj

For the first time in my very long OOTP playing career, I've seen a pennant race end in the four-way tie...

The game handled the situation ok; a two-tiered playoff of Boston vs. Washington and Detroit vs. St. Louis in one-game playoffs, with the winners advancing to face each other for the pennant.

That's likely how it would've been handled IRL. Random drawings to determine which teams square off in one-game playoffs, followed by the two winners matching up in a one-gamer for the pennant... Not much known history to go on (for possible 4-way AL ties), but that's the way it was envisioned, for example, in 1955, when a four-way tie between the Indians, Red Sox, Yankees, and White Sox was a possibility. It woulda been:

Mon 9/26: Clev @ Bos, NYY @ Chic
Tue 927: Clev/Bos winner @ NYY/Chic winner

Not exactly sure which year they flipped (I probably have that somewhere) but by the 60's the AL joined the NL in going with best-of-three tiebreakers as the standard. In both 1964 & 1967, the AL drew up plans to bust a two-way tie with a best-of-three, and a three-way tie with a four-, possibly five-game, round-robin (followed by a best-of-three)... Also in '64, the NL had the possibility of two, three, and four way ties. They would've handled a two-way and three-way essentially the same as the AL. A four-way would've featured a pair of best-of-threes, followed by another best-of-three...

By '69, with the onset of the divisional series, one-game playoffs became the standard.

[tayloraj]

Originally Posted by thehef

That's likely how it would've been handled IRL. Random drawings to determine which teams square off in one-game playoffs, followed by the two winners matching up in a one-gamer for the pennant... Not much known history to go on (for possible 4-way AL ties), but that's the way it was envisioned, for example, in 1955, when a four-way tie between the Indians, Red Sox, Yankees, and White Sox was a possibility. It woulda been:

Mon 9/26: Clev @ Bos, NYY @ Chic
Tue 927: Clev/Bos winner @ NYY/Chic winner

Not exactly sure which year they flipped (I probably have that somewhere) but by the 60's the AL joined the NL in going with best-of-three tiebreakers as the standard. In both 1964 & 1967, the AL drew up plans to bust a two-way tie with a best-of-three, and a three-way tie with a four-, possibly five-game, round-robin (followed by a best-of-three)... Also in '64, the NL had the possibility of two, three, and four way ties. They would've handled a two-way and three-way essentially the same as the AL. A four-way would've featured a pair of best-of-threes, followed by another best-of-three...

By '69, with the onset of the divisional series, one-game playoffs became the standard.

Thanks for all that information; I knew that the AL preferred one game and the NL three, but not with anything like that level of detail.

[Mat]

I had this happen in my league for the first time

[Mat]

White Sox and Yankees won in the first round



The Yankees then clinched, and went on to win the WS.

[luckymann]

Originally Posted by tayloraj

For the first time in my very long OOTP playing career, I've seen a pennant race end in the four-way tie.St. Louis, Detroit, Washington and Boston all ended the season deadlocked at 87-67, with my Red Sox blowing a 6-1 ninth inning lead over the seventh place White Sox to fritter away their chance at winning the pennant outright.

The game handled the situation ok; a two-tiered playoff of Boston vs. Washington and Detroit vs. St. Louis in one-game playoffs, with the winners advancing to face each other for the pennant.

I'm thrilled with the excitement of this year's game; thanks for putting out another great edition!

Fantastic stuff - thanks for sharing. Did you make it to the playoffs?

I've got an amazing race going on this season in my fictional league's version of the the AL Central. What makes it even more exciting is I had a special 165-game interleague schedule made for this league by one of the mods in which the season is broken up into two "sections". The second of these, which begins after a very late ASB, involves only intradivisional games. About halfway through this is how it looks and there have been more lead changes than in the final round at the Masters. All three of the NL divisions are close too, and of course the WCs are both still well up for grabs so it's easily been the most entertaining of the 14 seasons so far.